Blog

Presented by Harrowsmith
Designed by Joe Genovese
Constructed by Genoscape Inc.

Harrowsmith’s Truly Canadian Almanac is proud to be a media sponsor of the 2014 edition of Canada Blooms—and to present our “Wet, Wild and Canadian Harrowsmith Garden.”
With its rugged rocks, home-grown plants, trickling waterway and natural mulches, our Truly Canadian garden is in keeping with the theme of the 2014 edition of Canada Blooms: “Wild!”
In fact, visitors to our natural, environmentally friendly display garden could be forgiven for thinking they’d wandered into an especially beautiful corner of the Canadian Shield.
“We like the relaxed ‘wild’ look of a landscape that’s familiar to Canadians everywhere,” said Yolanda Thornton, publisher of Harrowsmith’s Truly Canadian Almanac.
“It represents an untouched area left to go wild,” said the garden’s designer, Joe Genovese, of the Toronto-area landscape design firm Genoscape Inc.
At the centre of the ‘Wet, Wild and Canadian Harrowsmith Garden” lies not orchids or roses but a pond. A big pond. Measuring 40 feet by 25 feet (12.2 by 7.6 m), the water feature isn’t the familiar murky puddle inhabited by a few listless koi.
Rather, it reflects Genovese’s preferred approach, which is to create a sustainable ecosystem—a wetland, not just an artificial pool.
Our garden also incorporates native plants and trees, intended to encourage birds, butterflies and bees to the garden.
“It’s a way of doing things that is very much in keeping with the Harrowsmith philosophy,” said Thornton, “and that’s important, because rapid development threatens Canada’s natural habitats.”
The whole point of the Harrowsmith garden is to help visitors accustomed to seeing expanses of exotic foliage and blooms start to think a little differently.
“We want visitors to walk away inspired and better informed about creating natural gardens this year,” says Thornton. “Let’s think of beneficial native plants and trees, not just pretty flowers.”

ABOUT US:

Genoscape Inc. is a Toronto-area firm with a harmonious, natural approach to landscape design. Owner Joe Genovese works with clients and other companies across the country on a consultative basis, assisting in the design and construction of water features. For more information: (905) 472-9112

Harrowsmith’s Truly Canadian Almanac is the only modern farmer’s almanac that is truly Canadian. Beloved by gardeners, foodies, eco-minded folks, star-gazers, weather-watchers, do-it-yourselfers, and proud Canadians everywhere. We celebrate country life, small towns & green living in the Great White North.
www.harrowsmithalmanac.com

Well here we are, February 21, 2015 and there’s still a ton of snow on the ground. The high temperature for today was -5C and the last thing most of you are thinking about is your pond. Well believe it or not, Spring will come, and it will be here before you know it. I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you about a cleaning and maintenance service that we provide for Greater Toronto pond owners.

We have been cleaning and maintaining ponds in the Greater Toronto Area for over ten years, with great success. What we do when we clean your pond in the spring is not rocket science by any means, but there is a proper way to do it as to ensure the survival of your fish and to give your pond the proper start up it requires. We have created a 20 Point Spring Pond Cleaning Checklist that we fill out at each and every pond we clean. This allows us to be efficient while we are conducting our cleaning services and it also guarantees that we don’t forget anything. No stone left unturned, so to speak.

We conduct spring cleaning services for many different types of ponds, whether we installed it or not. During our first assessment of the pond, our customers have the opportunity to request any enhancements they may desire to their pond. Some of the upgrades we can provide are: installing a skimmer, installing biological filtration, installing pond lights, installing plant pockets, installing an ion gen, adding rock to naturalize the pond, rebuilding waterfalls, adding some drift wood and many more. Everything that we do is so you get more enjoyment out of your pond!

Our spring pond cleaning season typically starts in the beginning of April. We clean ponds based on a first come first serve basis so if you are the type who likes to get you pond season started early, you better give us a call soon! We are always here to answer any questions you may have regarding your pond so please feel free to contact us whenever you like.

Well it’s the beginning of February and this signals the time when we start to pre-build some of our components for the upcoming Canada Blooms Flower and Garden Festival. We were fortunate enough to have been selected this year to construct a feature garden at the show. For those of you who don’t know what Canada Blooms is or how it works, I’ll give you a quick run down.

Canada Blooms, The Flower and Garden Festival, is a home show which exhibits displays from various landscape contractors and architects. The show is put on by the amazing people at Landscape Ontario and is made possible by the countless volunteers who help out with the show. The main purpose of the show is to promote our industry by showcasing some unique, and sometimes out there, designs that may be lurking in the minds of the selected garden builders. The envelope has been pushed, and now we’re on to pushing other stationary, when it comes to the creativity presented by some of these displays. The Canada Blooms design selection committee, a group of industry professionals who are in charge of reviewing all of the applications, has a tough job every year picking the most creative and inspiring designs. Yes that’s right. You have to be picked to get in! Unlike other home shows where you pay your fee for your display space and away you go, Canada Blooms won’t let you in if your design is not up to the standards they are looking to achieve. We were fortunate enough to have been selected for the last two years (’12, ’13) and our record is a perfect 3 for 3 with the 2014 show running from March 14-23 at the Direct Energy Center in Toronto.

Our 2014 Submission

This is the design that we submitted which won us our spot in the show. The layout has evolved a little over the last few months, but the key elements of the display still remain the same. If you know us, you know that our specialty is water. Our garden will have multiple kinds of water features throughout. We will create a meandering pathway, comprised of various natural materials, that will cross the water in different locations. We plan on using a nice mixture of stone and wood as our base hardscape materials.

Our plants will consist of many different ferns and grasses, Serviceberries, Pine, Spruce, Birch and a lot of native shrubs. We ordered a ton of daffodils that will provide vibrant splashes of colour around our garden.

For our Canada Blooms gardens in 2012 and 2013, we included a surprise signature water feature. These features can be clasified as works of art. I construct them using different natural materials that I think will look cool. Well to be honest, its whatever I can find laying around. These features take many hours to build but I would be lying if I told you that I didn’t love doing it. This year will be no different. We will have a signature piece on display, but you will have to come to the show to find out what it is!

2013 Signature Water Feature

2012 Signature Water Feature (we sold it to some awesome people!)

Next week I will write about our theme this year. I will also tell you all about some of our sponsors. We have collaborated with some other garden builders to bring you a very grand exhibit.

We did it again!

We are thrilled to announce that we were voted as Best Landscaper by the residents of Markham in the Economist & Sun’s Readers Choice Awards, 2013. This was our fifth Best Landscaper award in a row, an unprecedented feat.

Thank You Markham, we love you too!

We are very proud to announce the launch of genoscape.ca. Within our new site, you will find a lot of different images and content reagrding our services and past completed projects. As time goes on, we will establish a really nice collection of videos, images and articles pertaining to the word of natural landscaping.

Our goal with this website was to help our potential customers see why we are the right choice when it comes to hiring a landscape contractor in the Greater Toronto Area. We specialize in water features and natural environments and we wanted a website that emulated that same image. We couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out.

Special thanks to Craig from iGLOO Networking Solutions, who is a true professional and amazing at what he does. I highly recommend iGLOO to anyone who wants a sweet website like this! www.igloons.com